Technologies for remotely monitoring or remotely controlling one or more target devices using one remote controller are proposed.
Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for remotely operating one or more target devices from a monitor of a television set. Specifically, icons for the one or more target devices are displayed on the right side of a monitor screen. When a desired one of the icons is selected (i), a floor plan is displayed on the left side of the monitor screen (ii). When a pointer is moved to the location of installation of a target device desired to be operated in the floor plan (iii), an operation screen for the target device selected by moving the pointer is displayed on the monitor screen (iv) (paragraphs [0138] to [0140] and FIGS. 25A and 25B).
Patent Document 2 discloses a technology for controlling one or more target devices using a single remote controller. Specifically, a floor plan of each room and the condition within the room are displayed on a liquid crystal monitor of the remote controller. For example, the liquid crystal monitor displays a illumination mark displayed in the case where an illumination device of a certain room is turned on, a room temperature mark that indicates the current temperature of a certain room, a lock mark in the shape of a hatched window displayed in the case where a window of a certain room is locked, a device/facility mark that indicates the status or the like of a control target object, a mark that indicates the amount of hot water in the case where the control target is a bath, and so forth (paragraphs [0037] to [0041] and FIG. 6).
Patent Document 3 relates to a technology for remotely controlling and remotely monitoring open/close operation and the state of an electric building material (such as a hallway door or a skylight). Specifically, a monitor screen of a personal computer displays floor plans for first and second floors of a property, a picture of the electric building material (such as a hallway door or a skylight) and a state display icon that indicates the open/close state of the electric building material are displayed at the corresponding position on the floor plans. When the state display icon is selected, an operation screen for the selected electric building material is displayed in another window. The operation screen includes an open operation button, a close operation button, an operation monitor screen, and a button for hiding the operation screen (paragraph [0025] and FIGS. 4, 5, and 6).
Patent Document 4 discloses a user interface including a floor plan and an icon. Examples of the icon include an icon representing a receptacle, an icon representing a digital image frame, and an icon representing an illumination device (FIGS. 7 and 8B).
However, Patent Documents 1 to 5 described above need a further improvement.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-104567
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-138979
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-213107
Patent Document 4: U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,223